Overview
- Jeannette Jara and José Antonio Kast traded sharp attacks in their final televised debate ahead of the Dec. 14 presidential runoff, covering security, migration, the economy, labor policy, pardons and probity.
- Jara said she would resign from the Communist Party if elected to govern above party interests, pledged not to sign pardons, and pressed Kast over past support linked to human-rights convict Miguel Krassnoff.
- Kast said irregular entrants would not be regularized or registered and would be denied state benefits, rejected claims his platform includes leniency for pedophiles, and left open reviewing some dictatorship-era cases on humanitarian grounds.
- The encounter, organized by Anatel with nine thematic blocks, was punctuated by interruptions and tense exchanges, including Jara’s repeated rebuke to Kast to “calm down a little,” and both candidates later claimed they prevailed.
- The formal propaganda period ends Dec. 11 before a campaign silence, surveys have shown Kast leading, and analysts highlight uncertain backing from Franco Parisi’s voters and a fragmented Congress the next president must navigate.